How much do you need to know about your characters?

[CdnWriter]

When y'all are planning out these characters that are going to be in your stories....HOW much background detail do you know about each character?

I've seen advice that you need to know EVERYTHING about your character and for your main characters....that does make a certain amount of sense but surely you don't need to know EVERYTHING about your character when you're writing him/her?

For example, let's say my character hears someone call out and they look over, the person who called says "shoelace!" and makes the hand tying gesture. Surely you don't actually have to have it planned out in your character sketch that the teen style in vogue is untied shoelaces? If for some reason these two people need to interact, can't you as the writer make up a reason? In my example it's that the main guy has untied shoelaces.

Also in the example above, how much detail would the person who lets the character know their shoe laces are untied need to have? A balding 50 something guy called out to the teenager ahead of him in the library, "Hey mate! Your shoelace is untied. [makes hand tying gesture when teen looks over.]" More detail isn't necessary unless the 50 something balding guy shows up later and the teen has to remember where they saw him before, right? I could include the balding 50 something year old guy was wearing blue jeans, steel toed boots, and wore glasses. Oh, and he was black. I could also include more detail about the teen or the library environment but I just am having a lot of trouble understanding how much is necessary to know because I don't think I'll ever mention any of it in the story.

I'm trying out the Ellipsus writing software program and it's got some character sheets that ask for details of each character in the story - if I want - but some of the material it's asking for is so detailed! I'm both happy to have a standard format to flesh out my characters and a little amazed at the amount of detail the software asks me to fill out.

I think some of the stuff about your characters has to develop organically as you write him or her? For example if you're writing someone who was a cop and has been promoted to detective....maybe they have some hearing loss from the sirens they were exposed to while on patrol and that's something that would come up as you write the story....?

Or someone had a traumatic experience as a child or young adult and a certain scent or a phrase or a song lyric triggers a flashback - ok, do I need to KNOW what the traumatic experience was in any deep detail? Can I get away with someone just hearing phrase X and freezing as they remember an angry neighbour screaming at them as a child for cutting across their yard? Or seeing a german shepard and the flight response kicks in as they remember a dog bite when they were a young teen?

Anyways....if there's any advice, it would help!

 

[Naomasa298]

Jeeze, character sheets...

Make it up as it becomes necessary. If it's not important to the story that he had a pet dog when he was twelve, you don't need to know it. Have a reasonable idea of what's important before you start - hearing loss would be important because it affects his interactions throughout the story, but you don't need the actual reason for it until that becomes relevant.

 

[JT Woody]

Make it up as it becomes necessary.

Same.

My college professor for one of my writing classes had us do Pinterest boards and character sheets to REALLY knowbyour character.
But i found it super unhelpful because, how can i know my character if i dont have a world to put them in?

World building is more important to me. But thats not to say i neglect my charaters. Once i have the world, i can put the character into it and then create the character as they interact in with the world in the story.
I dont have to have a character sheet to know what my characters like and dislike, and how they would react to certain things or not. It just comes naturally.
If you gave my characters a dog.... Olun would be hesistant, but eventually pet it and befriend it. Didan would pretend to show no interest in it, but then give it a blanket and a steak before he leaves. Jorre would be on the ground hugging and kissing it and trying to teach it tricks. Genta would give it back (animals are messy). Syndra would kick dirt at it to make it bite her, so she could cry about it for sympathy.

Or someone had a traumatic experience as a child or young adult and a certain scent or a phrase or a song lyric triggers a flashback - ok, do I need to KNOW what the traumatic experience was in any deep detail? Can I get away with someone just hearing phrase X and freezing as they remember an angry neighbour screaming at them as a child for cutting across their yard? Or seeing a german shepard and the flight response kicks in as they remember a dog bite when they were a young teen?

This seems pretty important. If it is an importain detail that directly impacts another... its important to know what it is.
For example, Syndra.... she would react to a dog that way because it is a trauma response. So i have to know what trauma she had in her childhood in order to know her personality and what she would do. She has abandonment issues. When her parents left, she got sympathy from the villagers. She associates pain with sympathy and sympanthy with love.

In your scenario, you can have the person freeze up at the mention of X.... by why? Why did they freeze up? And does that trauma come into play elsewhere? Knowing the trauma helps you keep the characters responses to triggers consistent.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

How well do we know anyone? Even those who are very close to us? I'm married 28 years and my wife's favourite colour, decor, room arrangement, foodstuffs and everything in between change minute to minute, often as I'm carrying the blasted sofa from room 1 to room 2 to discover that it's better in room 1 after all. Or maybe, what might it be like in room 3? There's lots of people I know pretty well, most within a limited range of contexts, of whom I might predict their behaviour within imagined scenarios, but may well prove incorrect in assumptions. Most of them, I don't know their favourite colours, foodstuffs, tickle spots or sexual positions. I never thought to ask.

Sometimes that stuff gets overdone, in my opinion. Also, if there's no surprise for the author, the chances are there's none for the reader either.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Somewhere between oogatz and very little when I start. There's just no point in my opinion until there's some word count and context for it to adhere to. It will evolve from there as things come up but only within the context of the story. I tend to explain the bare minimum in all aspects of the story, so superfluous details don't mean too much. If it comes up, great: decision time. If it doesn't, who cares?

 

[Naomasa298]

World building is more important to me. But thats not to say i neglect my charaters. Once i have the world, i can put the character into it and then create the character as they interact in with the world in the story.

I'm a bit different, I treat worldbuilding the same as I do characters - I make it up when I need it. I don't come up with elaborate worlds, just what I need for the plot's immediate needs. Sometimes, that's a bit of lore that feeds right in at the start, but it's never to a point where I need the classic fantasy info-dump at the beginning (which actually was never a thing, it's just that somehow, fantasy writers got it into their heads that this was normal - not saying that you do at all).

 

[Naomasa298]

Also, if there's no surprise for the author, the chances are there's none for the reader either.

I can't agree with that. Agatha Christie probably started all her books with a pretty good idea whodunnit, yet it's still a surprise for the readers when everyone dunnit.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

I can't agree with that. Agatha Christie probably started all her books with a pretty good idea whodunnit, yet it's still a surprise for the readers when everyone dunnit.

Doesn't mean that nothing came as a surprise to her when writing her books.

 

[Naomasa298]

Doesn't mean that nothing came as a surprise to her when writing her books.

Doesn't mean anything did either, but there's nothing to suggest it either way. Personally, I doubt that it did, with Christie being a professional writer with a long career, she wasn't really a discovery writer.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

there's nothing to suggest it either way

ok

Personally, I doubt that it did, with Christie being a professional writer with a long career, she wasn't really a discovery writer.

Except for that, I guess.

I'm not looking to disparage Christie or any other mystery writer, I've never read any of her books but grew up with Peter Ustinov as an agreeable Poirot, she was clearly skilled at what she did. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't her books written to formula, with the big reveal at the end? The only surprise for anyone not paying attention to the clues dropped throughout the book is the identity of the killer(s). Maybe people who read her books aren't looking for a surprise, other than the relatively minor decision as to which of the pool of suspects is guilty, like puzzle solving. Maybe that's why I've never been drawn to reading Christie, because I'm not expecting anything unexpected. I'll have to give one a go and see what's what with them.

 

[Naomasa298]

I'm not looking to disparage Christie or any other mystery writer, I've never read any of her books but grew up with Peter Ustinov as an agreeable Poirot, she was clearly skilled at what she did. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't her books written to formula, with the big reveal at the end? The only surprise for anyone not paying attention to the clues dropped throughout the book is the identity of the killer(s). Maybe people who read her books aren't looking for a surprise, other than the relatively minor decision as to which of the pool of suspects is guilty, like puzzle solving. Maybe that's why I've never been drawn to reading Christie, because I'm not expecting anything unexpected. I'll have to give one a go and see what's what with them.

It's been a long, long time since I've actually read her, so I'm largely going from memory. But I would still say that people are looking for the surprise at the end to find out whodunnit - it's kind of the point of the genre, although sometimes, like with Columbo, the point is the journey, not the conclusion. It's like you can't really pick up all the clues with Sherlock Holmes, because you don't see everything that Holmes sees. You don't see the clay under the fingernails and so on that Holmes uses in his deductions.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

But I would still say that people are looking for the surprise at the end to find out whodunnit

I think I'd be more interested in that genre if there was even the remotest possibility that Poirot would sign off with "fucked if I know!"

 

[Catrin Lewis]

Same.

My college professor for one of my writing classes had us do Pinterest boards and character sheets to REALLY knowbyour character.
But i found it super unhelpful because, how can i know my character if i dont have a world to put them in?

World building is more important to me. But thats not to say i neglect my charaters. Once i have the world, i can put the character into it and then create the character as they interact in with the world in the story.
I dont have to have a character sheet to know what my characters like and dislike, and how they would react to certain things or not. It just comes naturally.
If you gave my characters a dog.... Olun would be hesistant, but eventually pet it and befriend it. Didan would pretend to show no interest in it, but then give it a blanket and a steak before he leaves. Jorre would be on the ground hugging and kissing it and trying to teach it tricks. Genta would give it back (animals are messy). Syndra would kick dirt at it to make it bite her, so she could cry about it for sympathy.


This seems pretty important. If it is an importain detail that directly impacts another... its important to know what it is.
For example, Syndra.... she would react to a dog that way because it is a trauma response. So i have to know what trauma she had in her childhood in order to know her personality and what she would do. She has abandonment issues. When her parents left, she got sympathy from the villagers. She associates pain with sympathy and sympanthy with love.

In your scenario, you can have the person freeze up at the mention of X.... by why? Why did they freeze up? And does that trauma come into play elsewhere? Knowing the trauma helps you keep the characters responses to triggers consistent.

I second this, because trauma responses are likely to spark sympathy and interest in the reader. That's how I am, anyway. I want to know why the song or whatever triggered that response. I'll also expect it to matter in the story. What I won't expect is for the author to explain it all right away. Heck, no.

And if the author isn't sure what the trauma's all about when they write those earlier scenes, no problem. They'll figure it out as they go.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

Here's a video on the subject I listened to the other day. It sounded helpful to me, even though I don't consider myself a "beginner" author. The presenter isn't keen on authors having to know everything ahead of time. "Like going to the DMV."

 

[Homer Potvin]

I think so long as the plot/story writes the relevant character trait, you're good. If it's the other way where superfluous traits write the plot, you're in lame-o city.

 

[GlitterRain]

You absolutely don’t need to know everything about your characters. You can explore your characters as much as you want beyond the basics of what the plot requires. And the more you know doesn’t mean the more will actually be in the story. Think of it as an iceberg. What’s above the water is what shows up in the book. What’s below the water is likely way more, but it doesn’t explicitly show up. You don’t want it to, because then you’ll end up with a 500k word novel with a bunch of filler and backstory with no relation to the plot. However, what’s beneath the surface, aka what you know about your character, is holding up what is showing above - what is in the story. So just because it doesn’t show up doesn’t mean it’s not important.

That said, you should know the basics of your characters. You don’t need to know how your character would react if, for example, they saw a shady guy that looks as though he might have a weapon on him pickpocket an old lady at 11 PM on the subway, but you should know generally where their morality falls. That’s just one example.

I pulled this quote from another recent post:

Basically, I feel like in order to properly create a character, someone should be able to ask you any question about the character in question and you be able to give an at least semi-coherent answer.

Those basic questions like where does their morality fall, where do they draw the line between good and evil, how much do they value responsibility, etc., all those questions will help you answer any question someone throws at you, like my example above about the pickpocketer.

And those character sheets you mentioned, they are there to help you begin to develop your character. If it asks your character’s height, it’s not just a dumb question to answer at face value. Say your character is a guy who is on the shorter side. Does his height give him a disadvantage in his lifestyle? Is he angry at his parents for giving him short genes? Is he self conscious when he’s on dates, always anxiously wondering if the girl is judging his height? All of that can build the character, make him react in certain ways within the plot, and it all comes from one question on a character sheet.

Also in the example above, how much detail would the person who lets the character know their shoe laces are untied need to have? A balding 50 something guy called out to the teenager ahead of him in the library, "Hey mate! Your shoelace is untied. [makes hand tying gesture when teen looks over.]" More detail isn't necessary unless the 50 something balding guy shows up later and the teen has to remember where they saw him before, right?

You are correct. You don’t need to add a bunch of details to this guy if he never shows up again in the story. Actually, you don’t want to because you will cause readers to believe that this guy will show up again at some point, and when he doesn’t, readers will be left confused. And this would definitely bloat your word count if you did it for every single character your MC encounters.

I read a book on writing recently that suggested that characters who populate the background, like park-goers, other people in the cafe, etc. - and I would also think characters like the one you described, if he never shows up again - are just merely part of the setting and should be treated as such.

I think some of the stuff about your characters has to develop organically as you write him or her?

Yes, this inevitably will happen. But you’ve got to come up with enough yourself to get the story going. It’s impossible to know what will organically arise as you write a character until it has risen from the writing. Although I believe you could potentially have an inkling of what could develop if you have developed a character enough.

Or someone had a traumatic experience as a child or young adult and a certain scent or a phrase or a song lyric triggers a flashback - ok, do I need to KNOW what the traumatic experience was in any deep detail?

Past trauma drives a lot of fiction. If the character is a major character, I’d expect to learn about the trauma. But as @Catrin Lewis said, I would not expect an info dump on the trauma backstory. Reveal it slowly and use it to your advantage to keep readers reading.